People were pointing guns at each other. Peter hadn't expected that to be the the type of scene he'd find when happening across more living people since he'd last left the mansion over a day ago. Well, more living people besides Eiko. Regardless of the fact that he didn't expect this turn of events, he was hardly surprised. Danya had been gracious enough to tell him that some people had less compulsions against using their weapons on others.

He remembered the first morning he had awoken to the roaring announcements. He wasn't supposed to be asleep when it happened. Sleep had crept up on him like a ninja sometime in the hours of darkness before the dawn, when he was supposed to be keeping watch. He hadn't been given much of an opportunity to kick himself up over it, because Danya was using his time on the microphone to hammer home the reality of the game that they were in.

Sure, Peter and Eiko had passed one or two bodies on their way around the island, but Peter had expected at least one person to succumb to playing. He'd watched Survival of the Fittest before; somebody always started playing early. Peter had done his best to clean up the bodies and put them in a more peaceful position. In a way, he had wished that he'd been given a shovel instead of a sword; these people deserved some respect. At least more than they'd been given.

Still, the sheer number of people dead and killers was somewhat an unsettling notion to Peter. He had recognized most of the names, though many he knew of moreso than knowing personally. He'd made a list in his head as Danya rattled off the names: a list of the dead but not forgotten. It was equally important to note who had played the part of the killer: Kris Hartmann, Reiko Ishida, Clio Gabriella, and last but not least, a bear. Peter didn't know what he would do if he met any of them. He wasn't going to attack a girl, and there sure as hell was nothing he could do against a bear.

Peter and Eiko hadn't strayed too far off through the woods away from the large mansion. They had reached the small hut that sat at the edge of the expansive green lawn, but something had convinced him to keep moving past to another destination. Eiko had been understandably against that idea, but Peter just had a gut feeling that going there would not end well. In the end, they had settled for a makeshift camp not too far from the small hut. Peter felt more at ease in the open air, and he had reasoned it wouldn't be too much more comfortable to try to sleep in the hut.

Danya had finished reciting his litany of death, and had gone on to make the other administrative announcements of the day. Danger Zones were not a new concept to Peter, but it was something totally different just seeing it on television and actually being steps away from a newly named Danger Zone. The Greens and the Groundskeeper's Hut. Those were close to their camp, and that meant that he wouldn't be able to go back to the mansion for his stuff if something bad happened today, since the Greens would basically surround the mansion.

Peter had watched as people bolted from the little hut he'd been watching for the night. Luke Templeton and... Clio Gabriella. Fuck. She wasn't heading in his direction, but it was scary to think he'd been that close to a killer. If he'd actually gone inside, he could've been another name that would be on the morning announcements. His and Eiko's names.

In any case, the best plan had been to keep moving around, while trying to stay away from the big marked locations on the map. They would be easy gathering places for people and it was likely that one of the killers would come to the same conclusion. The two spent much of the day trailblazing through the woods around the mountain that loomed over the trees. The sword he had been given had been decent for bushwhacking, although Peter used it sparingly so as to not dull the blade's edge. The traveling companions had shared choice bits of small talk throughout their travels, but Peter was not much of a conversationalist.

He had suspected that Eiko wasn't happy with his attempts to baby her along the trail, so at some point he stopped checking on her tiredness every fifteen minutes. Still, it was obvious that she wasn't familiar with long hikes, so he needed to slow his pace and take breaks more frequently than he'd have liked. Their trek around the island had been met with no signs of human life. Either the island was way bigger than he originally expected, or everyone really was just clustered up where the map indicated there had been a town.

Night had fallen and Peter once again set up a makeshift camp for him and Eiko. Most of his spare clothes went to padding out a bed and blanket for Eiko, while he resigned himself to the night's watch. Again, that didn't last long as two days of hiking hadn't done great things for his mental fatigue. He awoke sometime in the dead hours before dawn, far past the time anyone would consider making an attack. Either way, he was going to do his best to keep up the watch.

The morning announcements arrived with the breaking dawn. The list was again full of names he recognized. Peter had been taken aback by the mention of Will killing somebody, but he pushed it to the back of his mind. It was not up to him to judge his friends on whether or not they killed. Still, he was relieved to hear that no more of his friends had died. The list of the dead grew, and Peter once again found himself wishing that he'd known more about many of the fallen. He knew names and faces, but not very much about the actual person behind that name and face. It felt like its own sort of failure that he couldn't remember more.

The coming of a new day meant resuming the long walk around the island. Eiko was understandably against that plan. A city girl like her just wasn’t used to toughing it out in the woods for extended periods of time after all. Peter could hardly wait until it started raining; he could already imagine the complaining that would be brought in by the turn in weather. Still, he wasn’t going to make a big fuss about it, and in the end they decided to turn around to get back to the newly cleared Groundskeeper’s Hut. It would be closer to the Mansion and if they got there quickly enough, they could stake it out for themselves.

So here he was, back at the tall green grass. Back to where he started on this island.

Flat grassy plains were not Peter’s ideal for terrain to be associated in. There was little cover, and it lacked the trees to block the glaring heat of the sun or the gusts of wind that swept across the flats. There really was little benefit to staying out here. Unless they were suntanning or something totally retarded like that.

Evidently, other people hadn’t come to the same conclusion as he did. Stepping out of the treeline onto the green grass, Peter caught sight of two people off to his side. One was hovering near the edge of the plains and appeared to be conversing with the other, who was standing quite a ways farther in the open.

“Lemme go take a look. You should stay back.” Peter held up his hand in somewhat of a stopping gesture. If things got hairy, it wouldn’t do to have Eiko hanging too close with him. “I don’t think there’ll be trouble, but best to be safe.” He wasn’t sure at all if Eiko would accept a reason like that, but now wasn’t the time to debate.

He hunched over and slowly crept toward the two, hoping that they were more preoccupied with each other to notice his approach. Peter had a knack for sneaking up on people back at school, mainly because he was the kind of person that didn’t really attract attention. With any luck, he would be able to pull it off here on the island. As long as they didn’t get jumpy about people sneaking around.

Ericka Bradley and Lucas Lupradio. Once he had closed the gap, he could make out their faces in the daylight. Peter couldn’t say that he was close to either of them, and neither were the people he’d hear much about on the school rumor mills. What he did know was that Ericka had been named just this morning as having killed someone. Of course, the way that Danya had framed it made it sound like she had done it out of self defense as opposed to malice.

That, of course, didn’t explain why she was pointing a gun at Lucas. Or vice versa. Lucas had made a show of pointing his gun at the girl first, but the only motion past that was Ericka returning the favor after a few moments of talking. Peter was still too far away to hear what she had said, just catching her last few words as she raised her gun. Peter needed to do something fast before someone actually got trigger happy. He shot a look over his shoulder to make sure Eiko wasn’t following too closely; she’d be in danger if bullets started flying.

“Shouldn’t you two be a bit more careful about where you’re pointing those things?” Peter tried to keep a reasonable but dry tone as he rose from his position in the tall grass about ten feet behind Lucas. His sword, still sheathed, was loosely held in his off hand while he made a salute-like greeting. “Now, if you ask me, it seems like nobody here really wants to be shooting anyone. I mean, you already had plenty of time to do it.” Peter punctuated the comment with a shrug. It made little sense to try to talk someone down in a game like this if you had a gun after all. “So let’s have everyone chill out and put them guns down.”

Peter put his hand on the sword’s hilt and stepped forward toward Lucas. “Lucas, you first. You started this.” Peter had tried to practice drawing and resheathing the sword the previous night, but it wasn’t a skill that could be learned that quickly. If Lucas decided to use the gun, Peter would have maybe half a second to do something. He’d probably dodge to the side when Lucas swung his arm around, giving him more room to circle close to knock him down. Ericka was too far away to do anything about if she decided to fire; there was a lot more distance to cover to reach her.

Peter didn’t want anything bad to happen, but he needed to be ready. This was Survival of the Fittest after all.